Chavez Death Watch: can six pix nix trix?

Hey, look what Photoshop can do! Or, as they say in Caracastan: Foootooooshóóó !!! Why didn’t we think of this earlier?

Several nearly identical photos of Hugolino were released this afternoon to the people of Venenozuela.

Hugo Chavez Photos Show Venezuelan President Smiling, Reading Granma

By Daniel Wallis and Marianna Parraga

CARACAS, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Venezuela published the first photos of cancer-stricken Hugo Chavez since his surgery in Cuba more than two months ago, showing him smiling while lying in bed reading a newspaper, flanked by his two daughters.

The government said on Friday that the 58-year-old president was still suffering respiratory problems after a lung infection, and that he was breathing through a tracheal tube.

Chavez’s son-in-law said the socialist leader – famous for his long speeches – had difficulties speaking, but was writing down orders. “He doesn’t have his usual voice.”

Chavez has not appeared in public, and has still not been heard from, since the operation on Dec. 11, his fourth surgery for a cancer in his pelvic region first diagnosed in mid-2011.

Chavez’s face looked swollen in the two images, where he wore a blue-and-white track suit top and appeared alongside his beaming daughters Maria Gabriela and Rosa Virginia.

He was lying in a hospital bed, and in one of the photos they were reading Thursday’s edition of Cuban state newspaper Granma. The government said the photos were taken on Thursday night.

“The post-operative respiratory infection was controlled, but there is still some insufficiency,” Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said in the latest communique on Chavez’s health.

“Under these circumstances, which are being treated, the commander is currently breathing through a tracheal tube.”